The weather is doing a great job of reminding us of why we are going home. Two days ago the outside temp was 95, with a heat index of over 100, making it difficult to do much outdoors. Air conditioning has never been more appreciated After reconsidering the options we have decided to put Eos indoors for the summer. Although this makes showing the boat more difficult. being out of this horrid weather seems worth it. We will move off of the boat on Monday, and return to Santa Barbara on Tuesday.
As a break from boat work we took an overnight trip last weekend. Saturday we visited the battlefields at Chancellorsville and The Wilderness, then stayed in Fredericksburg. Sunday we spent the day at James Madison's Montpelier learning more about this remarkable man and his equally remarkable wife, Dolly. Madison's ideas resulted in the government we have today, particularly the principle of complete separation between government and religion. Too bad that terrorists in the Mid East seem incapable of understanding this principle.
Chancellorsville battlefield was most interesting. It was during this campaign that Lee lost his most trusted general, Thomas Jackson. Stonewall was shot by his own troops, and later evacuated to a local tavern where a field hospital was located. They amputated his arm at the shoulder, but he died 10 days later. His arm was thrown out onto a large pile of limbs, but a local official recovered it and took to to the Ellwood House estate. There it was buried in the family cemetery plot, where a marker exists even today. The rest of Stonewall Jackson ended up at his alma mater, VMI.
This will be the last post from our Chesapeake cruise. We have visited a long list of interesting and historic places, but we are now done with this part of the country.